9-Year-Old With Half a Heart Scores Touchdown

Nine-year-old Peyton West scored a 65-yard touchdown for his team, the Goshen Warriors, in Goshen, OH. This is not an ordinary 9-year-old, though. He was born with half a heart.

He went through three open heart surgeries before he was 5-years-old and his mother Melissa said there have been complications:

“He sustained brain damage as a result (of the complications) and he had to relearn everything from sitting up to eating, breathing and talking. Everything he had to relearn. So now he wears leg braces and he’s on a blood thinner and things like that for his heart,” Melissa said.

The team was playing against the Bethel-Tate Tigers when both teams helped Peyton, whose favorite player is reportedly Tim Tebow, score the only touchdown for the Warriors–and the two-point conversion. The sportsmanship of both teams moved Peyton’s father Corey, who is a coach on the team:

“A fan caught it all on camera. It’s just something you can’t stop from watching. It’s so inspirational, just the sportsmanship that Bethel showed that day. The kids on both teams supported Peyton and they gave him high fives when he was finished. It’s pretty special,” Corey said.